1966: A Year of Sporting Victories

What a year. 

Like the battle of Hastings in 1066, football fans will never forget the year when England won the World Cup 1966. 

As the quote goes: ''They think its all over...'' Kenneth Wolstenholme's commentary on BBC when England beat Germany 4 - 2. 

He said: And here comes Hurst! He's got...

Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over!

Whatever your fancy, Sun Bets has lots of great offers.   

It is now, it's four!    

I get the feeling we will have to wait until 2066 to see another FIFA World Cup for our beloved football nation. 

Here is a quick summary of other sporting winners in this famous year.

Tennis: Wimbledon 20th June - 2nd July

Manuel Santana wins the men's final. While Billie Jean King wins the women's. 

Grand National 1966 - Aintree

Anlgo wins at odds of 50-1 for trainer Fred Winter, ridden by Tim Norman. A 20-length victory beating Freddie who was runner-up the year before. 

Gold Cup 1966 - Cheltenham 

Almost as well known as England winning the World Cup, equine star Arkle made this a historic Gold Cup winning for the third time in consecutive years. Tom Dreaper trained this amazing nine-year-old for the Dutchess Of Westminster, ridden by Pat Taaffe at odds of 1/10f. 

More Horse Racing 

Flat racing:

The English Triple Crown wasn't achieved. We had to wait until 1970 for Nijinsky to win the 2000 Guineas, Epsom Derby and St Leger. He went on to win the Irish Derby just for good measure. 

Who won these races in 1966? 

2000 Guineas - Won by Kashmir trained by Mick Bartholomew, French-trained colt who showed class as two. 

Epsom Derby - Charlottown trained by Towzer Gosden. This bay colt won seven of his ten races but retire at four when disappointing in France. 

St Leger - Readers may remember this class horse - Sodium. This son of Psidium was trained by George Todd at Manton in Wiltshire. Sodium finished fourth behind Charlottown in the Epsom Derby and went on to win the Irish Dery in the same year.  

The Boat Race 1966

A long history of the battle of supremacy for Oxford and Cambridge University. The 112 boat race took place on the 26th  March 1966. A tight competition, Oxford won by three and quarter lengths. Cambridge won the women's race. 

1966 European Athletics Championship 

A couple of English victories of note:

Jim Hogan won the Marathon 2:20:04.06

Lynn Davies won the men's Long Jump 7.98 m  

The only two medals England achieved in these championships. 

July 17th saw American runner Jim Ryun set a new world record in the mile timed 3:51.3 

FA Cup 1966

Football fans enjoyed a battle between two tough sides in this final. Everton went on to beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2. 

Boxing in 1966

29th March - Muhammed Ali defeats George Chuvalo in 15 rounds on a unanimous decision.

21st May - A fight few UK boxing fans will forget. Henry Cooper deserved to beat Muhammed Ali ( Cassius Clay) in their first fight in 1963 with a left hook in the final seconds. The fight was delayed when Ali's gloves had to be changed after a tear (which was later detailed as a deliberate act by his corner). Cooper was outfought and stopped in the 6th round by a technical knockout in 1966. 

Muhammed Ali had a busy year going on to defeat Brian London by knockout in the third round (6th August)

10th September Ali had a tough fight with Karl Mildenberger with a 12th round TKO. 

He concluded the year retaining his WBC heavyweight title knocking out Cleveland Williams in three rounds. 

What's your favourite sporting year?

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High Risk or Low Risk?

What sort of better are you? Do you like to “risk it to get the biscuit” or are you more of a conservative gambler? For the best world cup betting tips check out world cup tips and you will be privileged enough to get the opinions of some of the smartest minds in the game when it comes to the world cup. Whether you are a risk taker or a safe better, world cup tips will have the answers for you. 

I am quite a safe better myself, I will make the following safe bets come the world cup. I would put some money on Germany and Brazil to win the world cup outright. I would bet on Messi of Argentian and Neymar from Brazil to win the golden boot and I would even take a punt on David De Gae of Spain to win the golden gloves award. I know many punters who would take a risk and bet on dark horses such as Belgium, France or Argentina to win the World Cup and these are not bad bets to be fair. All three sides have quality players and if they perform to their best abilities there is absolutely no reason why they will not have fighting chance of winning. There will also be the odd punter who will bet on players such as Ronaldo – the Portuguese genius and Harry Kane – England’s new golden boy. These two players are world class players and have scored goals for fun in their respective leagues this year however do Portugal have the ability to go as far in the tournament as a team such as Brazil? Only time will tell! That is the beauty of the World Cup, there is always a shock result around the corner. World Cup Tips will be able to assist you in deciding which games to bet on and which teams to bet on in the process. 

Everyone loves themselves an underdog story and we would love nothing better than to see an outsider go on to win the tournament this year. Some of the outsiders who may be worth taking a punt on would be for sides such as Russia the hosts to reach the latter stages of the competition. Russian have some talented players and they will be boosted by the fans and the fans will most certainly be the 12th man rooting and pushing the players over the line late in games. It often happens that the host nation seems to perform over and above their abilities as the have the chance to become hero’s in their nation. We saw South Korea surprise the footballing world when they got all the way to the Quarter Finals in the tournament in 2002 when the competition was played in South Korea and Japan. When it comes to betting, always be safe and think before you make that bet!

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Pie-eating Goalkeeper Investigated by Gambling Commision

Old story revisited...

The Gambling Commission are to investigate the pie-eating stunt of Sutton United goalkeeper, Wayne Shaw, during their FA Cup defeat by Arsenal on Monday night.

The reserve goalkeeper was spotted in the club bar at half-time among the fans, before returning to the dug-out  - with his infamous pie, flavour unknown - for the second half as 12-time FA Cup winners, Arsenal eased to a 2-0 victory.

Shaw was seen by BBC cameras tucking into a sumptuous pie in the dug-out before the final whistle.

Shaw confirmed that he had been informed about a bet surrounding himself eating a ''chicken'' pie live on television, Sun Bet offered and publicised a pie-eating stunt bet. They, coincidentally, became Sutton’s official shirt sponsor in a one-off deal. 

Sun Bet is being investigated and could face action after they paid out a five-figure sum to gamblers who backed an 8-1 offer that Shaw would be seen live on camera eating a pie during the match.

The Gambling Commission enforcement and intelligence director Richard Watson said: “Integrity in sport is not a joke and we have opened an investigation to establish exactly what happened.

“As part of that we'll be looking into any irregularity in the betting market and establishing whether the operator has met its licence requirement to conduct its business with integrity.”

The FA are also believed to be considering disciplinary action. 

Shaw said after the match: “A few of the lads said to me earlier on what is going on with the 8-1 [bet] about eating a pie. I said I don't know, I have eaten nothing all day. So I might give it a go later on.

“As I say what is that, Sun Bet had us at 8-1 to eat a pie. I thought I would give them a bit of banter and do it. All the subs were on and we were 2-0 down.

“I went and got it at half time from the kitchen, I had it all prepared and ready to go. It was meat and potato.”

Asked if anyone he knew backed the offer, Shaw answered: “I think there were a few people. Obviously, we are not allowed to bet. I think a few of the mates and a few of the fans. It was just a bit of banter for them. It is something to make the occasion as well and you can look back and say it was part of it and we got our ticket money back.”

Banter it may be - a hot pie may well get some people in hot water.